The Church became the great factor in the development of civilisation throughout the district. Had not the monastic system been good, it would not have lasted so long; had it not had within it the elements of weakness, it would not have come to such an untimely end. And even while we criticise it is well to recall the words of Newman: "Not a man in Europe who talks bravely against the Church, but owes it to the Church that he can talk at all."[363] The great abbey of Paisley was much to its neighbourhood, and its history is the history of its district. It is a memorial of the coming to Scotland of the great family of Stewart, which has left such a deep impress on Scottish history. Walter, son of Alan of Shropshire, joined David I. at the siege of Winchester, and the king showed to him great favour, taking him into his household, and conferring on him the title of Lord High Steward of Scotland. King Malcolm was even more generous, ratified the title to Walter and his heirs, and bestowed on him a wide territory, chiefly in Renfrewshire.[364] The Steward soon colonised after the fashion of the time, built a castle for himself in the neighbourhood of Renfrew, and gave holdings to his followers throughout the wide territory of Strathgyff, as his Renfrewshire property was called. But in those days no colonisation was complete without a monastery, and this the Lord High Steward proceeded to found, entering into an agreement with Humbold, Prior of Wenlock Abbey in the native county of his family, to establish at "Passelay" a house of the Cluniac Order of Benedictines, being the same order as the house at Wenlock. Humbold in 1169 brought thirteen monks from the parent house, and, having settled them at Renfrewshire in an island of the Clyde called the King's Inch, returned to Wenlock. There was at this time in Paisley an early church, dedicated to St. Mirinus, an Irish saint of the sixth century, and a disciple of the great school of St. Congal at Bangor. St. Mirin was a contemporary of St. Columba, and must have been a friend of the great apostle of Scotland. He was probably the founder of the early Celtic church at Paisley, and seems to have been an itinerant preacher round the district, regarding Paisley as his centre, where at last, "full of miracles and holiness, he slept in the Lord." It matters little whether these legends regarding miracles are historically correct, for the value lies in the moral of them. "The falsehood would not have been invented unless it had started in a truth, and in all these legends there is set forth the victory of a good and beneficent man over evil, whether it be of matter or of spirit."[365]